1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains in general to interactive television systems, and more particularly, to management of carousel data in such systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Interactive television content is transmitted nationally by television networks. This content contains enhancements to existing television programming, usually consisting of graphical overlays on the screen, and dedicated channels consisting entirely of full-screen graphical interactive television services, referred to as “virtual channels.” Examples of enhancements to existing television programming are an interactive television service to display sports scores and statistics during sports programming and an interactive television service to display biographies and trivia regarding the host and guests of a talk or variety show. Examples of virtual channels are a full-screen compact disc (CD) purchasing interactive television service and a full-screen weather information interactive television service.
This interactive television content is typically broadcast nationally along with the video and audio transmission. The content is received and re-transmitted at certain sites including uplink facilities for satellite television providers, and cable head-ends. These receipt and re-transmission sites are referred to as “local gateways.”
The interactive television data that passes through a local gateway travels over a distribution network, such as a cable or satellite television network, to a television set-top box or other type of receiver. Different distribution networks often have different capabilities. E.g., a digital distribution system can support a higher data bandwidth than an analog system. Moreover, there are many different types of receivers, and each type typically supports a different set of interactive television functionalities. Due to these many potential variables, the nationally-distributed interactive television data is often not optimized for a given distribution system and/or set of receivers. In addition, the content is often not localized for a particular region.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a way to tailor the interactive television data to the capabilities of given distribution networks and/or receivers, and for a way to localize the data.